ART TREASURES

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2147, 21 April 1928, Page 8

ART TREASURES

BRITAIN'S PAYMENT OF THE WAR DEBT. "Part of the payment'of our war debt to America is being made in works of art and objects of historic interest. I suggest that the.payment might be made in something we can better do without" (writes Lieuten-ant-Commander Kenworthy, R.N., M.P., in the London Star). "There is a steady shipment of paintings by the great English masters. Sometimes whole buildings cross the Atlantic. The latest example is the historic Broadhembury Grango, in Devonshire. It is to be demolished and reerected in the' United States. The Grange is not only one of the finest romaining examples of Tudor architecture, but its carved panelling, afe Sir Martin Conway has pointed out, is among the finest examples of its kind remaining. A couple of years ago the historic Warwick Priory was bought by a dealer, demolished, the stones shipped to America, and there re-erected. Nor are the citizens of the United States the only ones who pay us the compliment -of acquiring our native art treasures. Wealthy Brazilians and Argentinos are entering the market. Ancient books, including the first folio editions of our greatest writers, pictures, genuine plate, armour—a great rarity these days—are leaving these shores. Fortunately Stionohenge has been preserved; and a similar attempt to buy Sulgrave Manor, the birthplace of George Washington, and ship it to ' God's Own

Country,' has been frustrated. If it would .really cement Anglo-Amsrican friendship 1 1 would be prepared to present America with Sulgrave Manor or any authentic home of one of the original Pilgrim Fathers; but I object to part of the national patrimony being bought over our heads and this country being deprived of it for ever for commercial gain. Italy is a far poorer country, financially, than England; and yet we must admit that she is far richer in works of art. Nevertheless, for many years now Italy has- had a law in force prohibiting the export of certain scheduled art tueasures. I suggest that some such law is needed for this country. A law might be passed giving power to schedule certain buildings, pictures, books, and other rare -or artistic objects, and to prohibit their sale for shipment abroad. Certain individuals might suftler; but we must think of the interests of generations coming after us. We might compromise on the breaking up of the art collections of very wealthy dead men by allowing a payment of part of the death duties in works of art (for the national collections) at a fair valuation. Nor is there any new principle in my proposal. We schedule certain ancient monuments, historic castles, and so on, and prevent their destruction and removal; so why not do the same thing for the more portable, but equally irreplaceable-, pictures of Joshua Reynolds and Turner, the remaining first folio editions of Shakespeare, and the better examples of Tudor and Gothic art?"